Two decades after the United States Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty, states are executing prisoners at a steadily accelerating pace, according to the statistics.

• Thirty-eight states have legalized the death penalty, while 12 states and the District of Columbia have not.

• Only 29 of the 38 death-penalty states have actually executed a prisoner since 1976, the year the Supreme Court restored that power to the states.

• In the first nine months of this year, 58 criminals were executed -- a 40-year high.

• The death penalty is invoked in fewer than 1 in every 500 homicide cases nationwide.

Experts say that death sentences were formerly handed out primarily in Southern states, but they are increasingly being invoked in other areas. However, Texas alone has accounted for about 138 of the inmates executed since 1976 -- about 1 in 3 of all executions

• The number of inmates on death rows nationwide has increased by almost 10 percent in the last two years -- to 3,269 in August 1997.

• The average stay on death row is now 8.5 years.

• One researcher reports having documented 19,150 American executions from 1608 to modern times.

Experts explain that one reason for the increase in executions is the enactment of new federal laws curtailing appeals and financing for defense lawyers. Also, there has been a fall off in clemencies granted by state governors -- with only one, in Virginia, granted so far this year.